Summary

Our Score

5/10

Review Price free/subscription

When the Mozart TX arrived in the office, my first impression was that it was a similar size to a shuttle. No – not the popular SFF brand, but in fact a real shuttle. Benny's first reaction was “is that a case, or a fridge?” and Riyad felt it looked more like a cabinet than a case. This thing is huge!

Ok, jokes aside – this thing is big. It's just over 720mm tall, 330mm wide and 360mm deep. That's bigger than two full sized ATX cases side by side (that's the really tall ones, not the midi cases most of us have). The desks in our office are between 690-710mm high, while my home desk is 715mm. Neither of these are high enough to accommodate this behemoth of a case. However, by removing the cheap plastic feet from the bottom of the case, I could just about slide this under my main desk.

Not being able to fit it under your desk is not the end of the world though. It would fit quite nicely next to a desk, where it's high enough to actually extend available surface area. It is even indented slightly, almost suggesting that a mouse mat could be placed on top.

Even before actually installing anything into the case, it's incredibly heavy. I kept my osteopath in business just by lifting the box in an awkward position. The weight is primarily due to its steel construction. Making this out of aluminium would have rocketed the price sky high but kept the weight down. Once a full machine is in place, it's a complete pain to move. You'd think then, that Thermaltake would have put carry handles on the case, or even wheels, but no. This is a slipped disc waiting to happen.

From the front, it's not an unattractive design, with its aluminium fascia. It looks like someone has taken a standard case design and just upscaled it. You'll see five 5.25in bays for optical drives, a single 3.25in drive bay, and a 7in bay (more on that later).

At the top of the case, for easy access (assuming you can fit this under your desk), is a six-pin FireWire connection, four USB 2.0 connectors, microphone input and headphone output. Interestingly ahead of the curve, we also find an eSATA connector and eSATA power connector. The power connector is an odd, S-Videoesque affair that I've not seen before. As far as I know, there isn't a standard for eSATA power connectors yet and there was no cable included (although most eSata drives come with their own power supplies and data cables).

The power switch feels cheap, finished in chrome plastic to match the reset button.

Both sides of the case have giant hinged doors with dual window design. There are thumbscrews holding them in place, but frankly these aren't really needed. A quick pull of the handles at the top and bottom and the door swings open.

On this side, there is room to fit a full-sized motherboard. You can also see two of the five included 120mm case fans. Because of the size of the case, this is literally all this quadrant is designed for, so there is plenty of room for fiddling around and installing any watercooling equipment.